Easters

First, some good news. McKay is back in underwear and this time I think he will probably stay in them. I'm not sure what it was that finally helped it click into his mind, but something got to him and he decided he was ready to keep his underwear dry. For the past two weeks, he has had maybe two accidents. Total. He wears a pull-up to bed and is dry about half the mornings when he gets up. He even started taking himself to the bathroom when he felt like he needed to go. That's the best sign of all for me. Hopefully it's smooth sailing from here on out, and I don't have to clean up another poop accident. I gave the boys haircuts one morning and they thought they were fashion models. This is their pose:

When we got back from AZ, we found that spring had finally made it here. Our street looked like this for about a week.

On the Saturday before Easter, we did an egg hunt at Colleen's house with the Telford kids. Everyone had a really fun time and Colleen got a lot of fun prizes for the kids. 

We finally managed to get our eggs dyed after spending all day at the soccer fields and doing yard ward

Finally, a pic from Easter Sunday. What a great day to celebrate the risen Lord!

Spring Break 2014

I never look forward to the drive, but I always look forward to our week in Arizona every year. 10 hours in the car leads to a lot of this...

Once we made it, though, it was wonderful. We spent Sunday watching General Conference, having an Easter egg hunt with all the cousins (Carter scored a $10 bill in his money egg!), and visiting the new Gilbert temple.

 

We stopped by the Shumway's before the BBQ we had with Jeff's friends, and I loved that Kyla and Afton were coordinating so well.

We spent most of our days at the pool, which was so nice. 

We made smoothies, but didn't have any straws, so most of McKay's ended up on his face

Heather and Samuel came up to visit one day and we swam, barbequed and let the kids play and play and play. They loved it!

We got some puzzles and games from the owner's lounge and we spent a lot of hours putting this 550 piecer together. We had to do parts of it over and over, because little hands like to take puzzles apart.

Carter wasn't feeling especially great, and spent parts of our swim time sleeping on a chair. The last day we were there, he had a bit of a fever and slept for several hours in the shade. Luckily, he was fine after a dose of motrin and a good night's sleep.

Why is McKay always so goofy for pics?

Awesome pool at the Marriott

I love the memories we all make, but especially the kids, who really DO love each other

Our drive home ended up taking two days, because we stopped in St George Saturday night after a huge detour between Las Vegas and Mesquite. The kids were good, but it was a LOT of travel. Luckily we had Stake Conference, so there was no rush to get home, and we took advantage of another night with family.

Now we are back at it, and missing our easy pool days so much. I can't wait for next year!

Spring

Spring has meant the beginning of soccer again, so life has gotten extremely busy. We have something (usually more than one something) every single night, and the weather is so temperamental. It will be nice one day and then cold for another week or two. Welcome to spring in northern Utah. Here's Kyla with her friend Lucy after one game.

The kids also had Crazy Hair Day one Friday, and Kyla wanted to go all out. 

Damon wore a hat and Allie let me do a small bun on top of her head. That's as crazy as they wanted to be. 

The little boys needed a picture too

As I was packing all of our swimwear and summer clothes for our week in Arizona, it snowed again. Yep, that's spring. 

Catching Up

A few posts coming from me, and this is the pre-pre-Spring Break one. Carter loves cucumbers. Have I ever mentioned that before? One morning, I had picked up our Bountiful Baskets, and there were a few large cucumbers in the basket. Later that afternoon, I found this in the refrigerator.

After I took this picture, I threw the cucumber in the trash. Later that same day, I found Carter sneaking a few more bites after he pulled it back out of the trash. Funny kid.

Fun watching the Esplin Family Play

Kyla was FINALLY chosen as Student of the Week (I say finally because she had been telling me for months she had already been chosen, but just had no picture with the principal to prove it. She's a bit of a fibber about a lot of things, so I told her I couldn't believe her until she had the picture to prove it). So here are the kids' pictures with Mrs. Hart from the time they were each Student of the Week.

I got to play basketball with some girls from our stake (I am the only one from our ward who plays, so I had to combine with another ward) for the regional tournament. We had some really good games, and our semifinal game was really close, but we managed to pull it out. We won the championship game easily and we got to cut down the nets and got championship t-shirts. It was so much fun!

Potty Training No More

So, McKay is back in diapers. It's better this way. I mean, it's really too much to ask that my last child, who was never forced to even try to pee in the potty before he was three, would be easy to potty train. That's just not the way the world works.

He was very good at peeing in the toilet and he would happily do it anytime I asked. Because he was peeing so often, he was also quite good at staying dry when we had things we had to do. But he never once went on his own. And he never once felt the urge to poop before it was too late. He would try to squeeze some out if I asked him to, but that was the extent of it. He just doesn't have the bodily awareness yet to be able to figure it out.

On Saturday, he had been really good at staying dry, even during the kids' soccer games. When we got home, I had him constantly on the toilet, hoping that he'd be able to figure it out if I was really consistent. He just didn't need to go. Finally, about 5:30, he was playing and I asked him if he wanted to try again (it had only been about 30 minutes since had had tried before). He got a funny look on his face and said, "I need to be changed." He had peed and pooped in his underwear and was happily sitting in it on the floor without a care in the world.

I immediately stuck in him in the shower and told him he needed to clean himself off. And, contrary to everything I promised myself, I was mad at him. I couldn't blame it on my inattention. I couldn't blame it on not trying. I could only blame it on him. He started crying while I yelled at him to scrub the poop off his legs. It was at that very low mothering moment that I decided it just wasn't worth it. He clearly isn't ready, and going back in diapers was the best thing for us all.

Since then, he hasn't complained much at all. A couple of times, he has put underwear on, and complained when I told him he needs a diaper instead. He says, "but I'm three now!" To which I respond, "but you're not ready. When you are ready to start going poop on the toilet, you can wear underwear again." Now he has stopped trying. And we're all fine with it.

I guess he really does want to be my baby for a little while longer.

Close Call

Today was a busy day. One that needed to go smoothly, because Jeff is working in New Mexico. After school, Allie had soccer practice from 4-5, and then we had to go back home to pick Damon up to take him to his Images of Greatness performance. He has been working on a display board, bio riddle, and costume for tonight, as he portrayed Vincent Van Gogh.

We were on a tight schedule, because Kyla had tumbling at 5:45 and Allie had dance at 7:00, so there wasn't really time for things like eating. And accidents.

After Allie's practice, we drove home to pick Damon up. I drove into the driveway and turned the car off. I didn't take the keys out of the ignition, which I should have done. I ran in to get Damon, and he needed some help printing something. Carter and McKay were waiting in the car, and the next thing I knew, I heard Carter crying. I walked outside and saw the car across the street, in front of the neighbor's house. Luckily, it was just next to the curb and not five feet over next to their mailbox (which had just barely been repaired after a delivery truck backed into it), and nothing had happened to the van or the neighbor's yard.

But Carter was crying hard and I noticed his legs were scraped up. After a lot of questioning, I pieced together that after Carter had put the car in reverse, he had panicked, opened the door, and jumped out. The tire marks on his calf told me that he had been run over by one of the tires. He cried and cried and told me that he couldn't even stand up. 

My heart dropped. I was pretty sure that he had broken a bone--his ankle looked a little red and swollen already. But we were on a tight schedule, so I threw him into the car and drove Damon up to the school.  Sitting in the parking lot, I called Jeff and told him what had happened. I wasn't freaking out, but just trying to figure out what I was going to do if I felt like he needed to get an xray. We both decided to give him a couple of hours to see how he recovered. I couldn't tell if he was crying more about the scrapes, or if there was something else wrong. So I carried him into the school (after we dropped Kyla off at her tumbling class) and we sat through the Images of Greatness performance. After about 30 more minutes, Carter was finally able to put weight on his legs, and we all heaved a hugh sigh of relief. 

Somehow, he managed to escape without any major injury. I'm not sure if the car ran over him completely, or just grazed him, but either way, I am super thankful tonight. I feel really blessed and watched over, and I know my prayers will be a little longer and a little more heartfelt tonight. 

Birthday Boy

On Monday, we got to celebrate McKay's third birthday. It's hard to believe he's already three. It seems like he should still look like this:

But he's growing up, and couldn't be happier about turning three. I love how easy he is to please.  A couple presents, some cupcakes and peanut butter pie, and Colleen's family and BOOM. Party.

Massage line

Love my baby boy

There are so many things I love about this boy. He is the sweetest thing ever. He wants everyone to be happy, and is always giving things to his siblings. I've never had a three year old who is so good at sharing. Maybe it's because Carter has such a strong personality, but McKay will let Carter have whatever he wants.

He still loves girl stuff, but has really worked hard to convince himself that he doesn't. He told Tara that he couldn't sleep in her girls' room, because he's a boy. He has somehow lost all the ponies he used to play with, so my mom bought him a family of horses while we were in Mexico. He really loved them for a few days, but hasn't been playing with them as much lately. 

He still sucks his thumb and loves his bunny, Kenzie, although he told me he wants it to be a boy now, so maybe it will become Jonny now. 

He never gets to make a decision for himself. If I ask him what he wants, he'll let Carter or Kyla answer for him, and he almost always agrees with what they say. He likes Paw Patrol and Daniel Tiger on tv. He likes to sleep in in the morning. He still tells me all the time that he wants to be my baby.

On his birthday (when he and Carter were wearing their St Patty's day shirts), I told McKay it was time to get potty trained. He has been fighting me about this for a while now, telling me he wasn't ready because he wasn't three yet. He had even started changing his own diapers for me by wiping himself and leaving poop streaks all over the carpet. Yep, it was time to get him potty trained.

He has done very well so far. The first day, he had one pee accident in his underwear, so I took them off and had him run around bare butt. He was getting really good at peeing in the toilet (he's highly motivated by candy), and stayed dry the rest of the day. BUT he had a hard time with the pooping. While he was bare, he pooped on the carpet. Seriously?? Just pooping on the carpet like a dog? He also pooped in his underwear later in the day. That was fun. I had him dip his undies in the toilet to clean them out, but he was crying, saying he needed to be back in diapers.

Tuesday, he woke up dry and did really good all day staying dry. I had stuff I needed to do, so I put him in a pull up (so he wouldn't have an accident at the neighbor's house), which he managed to keep dry. He did poop in the pull up later in the afternoon, which was kind of a bummer. I wasn't sure if he was getting it or how long it would take him. But at least it was much easier for me to clean up. I am typically against pull ups, because I think they are just like diapers, but since he was doing so well with the pee (and I had a bunch left over from when Carter used to wet the bed), I decided to use one. 

Today, he woke up wet, but no big deal. After breakfast he told me he needed to poop (which he has said several times) and Allie took him to the bathroom. Surprise, surprise, he did a big poop on the toilet. Celebration! We made a big deal about it, and I gave him a box of Mike and Ikes. Which he "shared" with all his siblings because they asked him to. He has done really great today. He loves candy (he gets one every time he pees), so he goes every hour or so. Even when we had to go to soccer practice and Damon's class performance, he stayed dry. I'm so happy, and relieved, and proud of him.

The other night, as I was getting the boys in bed, I had a tender moment with them. I often dread having to put them to bed, just because I know that it's going to take a half an hour or more. I go down, brush their teeth, read to them and then we turn out the lights and sing songs. I was holding their hands and singing primary songs, and I was just really struck with a sense of how lucky I am to get to be their mom. These two boys are the best of friends and I know each one would be lost without the other. They really are so sweet and love me so much. I love to watch them grow and learn new things, but they are my babies, and it won't be long before I don't have a small hand in mine as I sing songs about heaven and Jesus.

I'm just really glad that right now, I do. 

St George Wedding Weekend

Jonny and Kenzie got married on March 8th and it was a great opportunity to get together and celebrate! Carter started the weekend off with a bump on his head, courtesy of Grandma Karen's trampoline. We thought his turban holding ice was a great look. 

It was a gorgeous day for a wedding. I didn't take that many pictures, but here are a few that I got. Love McKay's little photo bomb in this shot of Allie.

The girls are so happy for Jonny and love their new aunt Kenzie

I loved spending so much time with my sisters. We all stayed with Tara, which meant a lot of time for the cousins to play!

The wedding colors were yellow and navy blue, which looked really good in pictures. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough time to get pictures of everyone together. But here are a few of our family.

Because we had so many people in one house, we had the boys spend the last night in a tent in the backyard. They surprised us all by staying out there all night long, even though it got a bit chilly!

The kids didn't have school on Monday, so we stayed an extra day to spend more time with the cousins. We went to ride horses at the corral and get really dirty.

Brilliant idea to put McKay in a white shirt, huh?

These girls love horses

Allie drank a whole bunch of water when we first got there, and she was a little sick. Finally, after about an hour, she threw up in a barrel. Just before I was getting ready to make the drive home. I gave her an empty peanut can and headed home. She threw up once along the way, but no one else ever caught anything, so I'm pretty sure it was all that water she drank.

We had so much fun with the family, and can't wait to see them again. 

On Sunday, the kids were all wearing their Mexican clothes to church (except Kyla, who really wanted to wear her yellow scarf again, stinker), so I got a pic. LOVE the boys in their guayaberas!